Visionary Ayahuasca: A Manual for Therapeutic and Spiritual Journeys

by Jan Kounen, Alejandro Jodorowsky (Foreword)

A “what to expect” guide for first-time ayahuasca users paired with accounts from the author’s extensive shamanic experiences in the Amazon

• Describes how to prepare for the first ceremony, what to do in the days afterward, and how to maintain a shamanic healing diet

• Details some of the author’s own ayahuasca experiences, including an intensive trip in 2009 when he underwent 17 ceremonies

• Explores the many other plants that are part of the ayahuasca healer’s medicine cabinet as well as the icaros, healing songs, of the ayahuasca shaman

Since 1999 Jan Kounen has regularly traveled to the Peruvian Amazon to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies. At first only a curious filmmaker, over multiple trips he transformed from explorer to apprentice to ayahuasquero and often found himself surrounded by other foreigners coming to the jungle for their first taste of ayahuasca medicine. Knowing how little guidance is available on how to prepare or what to expect, he naturally offered them advice.

Part visionary ayahuasca memoir and part practical guide, this book contains the same step-by-step advice that Kounen provides first-time ayahuasca users in the jungle. He describes how to prepare for the first ceremony and what to do in the days afterward. He explores how to deal with the nausea and details the special preparatory diets an ayahuasca shaman will put you on, often lasting for months but necessary for life-transforming results and teachings from the plant spirits. He also explains how it is far easier to maintain these restrictions in the jungle than in the city.

Detailing his own ayahuasca experiences over hundreds of sessions, including a trip in 2009 when he underwent 17 ceremonies in 25 days, Kounen describes how ayahuasca transformed him. He tells of his meetings with Shipibo healers, including Kestenbetsa, who opened the doors of this world for him, and Panshin Beka, the shaman to whom Kounen became an apprentice. He details the many other plants and foods that are part of the ayahuasca healer’s medicine cabinet, such as toé and tobacco, as well as their icaros, or healing songs. A veritable “what to expect” guide, this book should be your first step prior to committing to ayahuasca.

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2014

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel about the first half of this book the same way I felt upon reading Terrence McKenna's memoir about doing mushrooms in the Amazon: I'm glad you had a good time, dude, but spare me the trip stories. (Trips are like dreams, in that they're interesting only to the person having them.) Though it was kinda fun reading about how Gaspar Noe went with Koenen on one of his ayahuasca trips, which explains a lot about Enter the Void. Meanwhile, the second half of the book was a much more common-sense manual of instructions and tips for having a safe experience with ayahuasca, and there was a lot there for me to digest. Read this for the tips, not the trips.

[dekabrionok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second part with tips is practical, interesting and have a lot of sense. Recommended for people thinking to go through that experience.
First part have interesting moments, but I ended up skipping some parts about trips. It would be interacting to read more about philosophy.